I was at a Spring Training game yesterday where a female fan behind me thought it was "cute" that 2 maple bats shattered into pieces during the game. She was hoping to see more broken bats.
Yesterday, David Price from the Rays got cut on his non-throwing hand from an Adrian Beltre broken maple bat. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that a serious injury is just another broken bat away.
Maple is a light wood. Players shave the handle of the bat down so they can swing through the hitting zone quicker. The light weight allows players to use longer bats with bigger barrels, thus more surface area to hit the ball. Think of it as a Big Bertha club in golf.
No results were ever published from a study by MLB who collected broken bats last year. You think players would be concerned about the use of maple bats. Not so! It may not be as sexy as steroids or HGH, but players will continue to use maple bats because it improves performance. It's a weapon to get more hits, more offense, ultimately a bigger paycheck.
I hope a player doesn't have to die before something is done.
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